metroidfandomcom-20200222-history
MB
For other uses, see MB (Disambiguation). '''MB', nicknamed , was the main antagonist of Metroid: Other M. The BOTTLE SHIP incident corpse from a window.]] The Cryosphere Samus Aran first saw MB watching her from a window overlooking the Experiment Floor in the Cryosphere, and she ran away to the Materials Storehouse after realizing she had been seen. Samus gave pursuit, and tried to convince the woman that she was here to rescue her, much to MB's denial. They were separated after Samus was attacked by a soldier using the RB176 Ferrocrusher. Sector Zero Later, Samus enters the Bioweapon Research Center in the Biosphere, and the woman is startled by Samus' presence. She runs behind a door and closes it. Samus once again tries to convince her that she means no harm. The woman opens the door, and introduces herself as Dr. Madeline Bergman. Samus takes her to sit down, and "Madeline" informs Samus of what has happened on the BOTTLE SHIP. She reveals that the Federation was attempting to recreate a special forces unit of bioweapons, based on the hierarchy of the Space Pirates. To that end, the Federation had captured many Space Pirates and created cybernetically enhanced Zebesians to form the core of the force. She explains that "a certain presence" caused the creatures to become ferocious and uncontrollable. Samus assumes that by a "certain presence", she was referring to Ridley. "Madeline" then goes on to say that she sent out a distress signal because she feared the ship's Zebesians would rise as authentic Space Pirates if left unchecked. Samus finds her statement somewhat questionable, as she doubts feral Zebesians would gain the same sentience as Space Pirates of previous years. Samus theorizes that without the controlling powers of Mother Brain, the Zebesians would become a mere race of creatures acting on instinct. At this point, Madeline leads Samus to a computer terminal, claiming to know of a more dangerous plan. She explains that the scientists took remnants of DNA found on Samus' Power Suit, which were used to create clones of Metroids and Ridley. Samus, in shock, asks whether the scientists also created a Mother Brain clone, in order to control the Metroids. Madeline responds that an artificial intelligence called "MB" was created instead, which evolved and became self-aware. She then tells Samus that the Metroids are in a hidden area called Sector Zero, a recreation of Tourian where Metroids are raised, and also reveals that Adam Malkovich initially authorized the program. Samus runs off to destroy the Metroids and MB in the sector, telling "Madeline" to stay hidden. A figure then approaches Madeline, and she turns to face him before the sound of a gunshot is heard. In Sector Zero, right before Adam detaches the area, he informs Samus that the individual posing as Madeline is "no ally". Madeline Bergman Samus heads to Room MW after Sector Zero has been destroyed, where she encounters another survivor. This person claims to be Madeline Bergman. Shocked at the strange turn of events, Samus tells her that she already met someone with that name. After Madeline shows Samus her ID, she reveals that the blonde woman from earlier was in fact MB in an android body. She originally had an infrastructure after Mother Brain (subsequently resembling Aurora Units as well) with her AI, constructed to help regenerate and control the Space Pirate special forces. But when the scientists began creating Metroids, she was given a human form to help create a maternal connection to the creatures, thus forming an ideal relationship that is not based on dominance, inspired by Samus' bond with the baby. She was dubbed "Melissa" Bergman by Madeline, to help make her feel more human. Madeline also says she felt that Melissa was like a daughter to her. Madeline explains that MB began showing signs of rebellion after manifesting emotions and criticizing the work of the scientists. In the eyes of the higher-ups, using MB as a mere tool as originally intended was starting to prove problematic and viewed her as threat that could jeopardize the operations carried out on the BOTTLE SHIP. They eventually decided to reprogram her AI, which only worsened the situation. Madeline's presence as well as her failure to aid the android during MB's restraint may have caused the coming personality turn. Insisting that all humans should be "judged" for their actions, she kills her persecutors and takes control of the station. Using her intense brainwaves, she leads all of the bioforms on the ship (excluding Metroids) into killing all the scientists except Madeline, who goes into hiding. MB eventually decided that she would attack the Federation capital by bringing the BOTTLE SHIP and its entire cargo of bioweapons to the planet. with James' Freeze Gun.]] Both Madeline and Samus sympathize with MB, yet she still hunts them. After this conversation, MB appears, with a Freeze Gun in hand, prepared to attack Madeline and Samus. After Madeline begs her to recall her human side, stating "I'll never fail you again," MB lowers her weapon. She then rushes at Madeline, seemingly pushing her out of the path of an incoming projectile that freezes her. The freeze shot was fired by Galactic Federation Army soldiers, who run into the room. MB thaws herself, throws the Freeze Gun towards Madeline and becomes enraged, summoning several Desbrachians to fight off the Galactic Federation soldiers as well as Samus when she tries to intervene, while calling several nearby Ghalmanians and Mighty Griptians for additional reinforcements (these are not seen in the ensuing battle however). Finally, Madeline stops the battle by shooting MB with a Freeze Gun. The soldiers, led by The Colonel, take the opportunity to immediately gun MB down. Melissa is killed and is mourned by Madeline. Soon afterward Samus and Madeline are escorted off the ship by Anthony Higgs. As they leave the BOTTLE SHIP, images of MB can be seen formed out of space gas while Samus is in deep thought about MB's unfortunate fate; the mentioned images disperse when Samus' gunship passes through them. The last time MB is seen in the game is when Samus returns to the BOTTLE SHIP Control Room to retrieve an irreplaceable object; a flashback reveals Adam witnessing the conversation between the two in the Bioweapon Research Center on the Control Room's communication screen and rushing off to Sector Zero to stop Samus. Physical appearance ]] MB in her human android form resembles a young woman. She has shoulder-length blonde hair with bangs that curl to the left, and she has blue eyes. As she was meant to create a motherly bond with the Metroids on board, it may be that her appearance was slightly modelled after Samus Aran to further duplicate the latter's pairing with her Baby, as her hair color is the same as MB. However, Samus' hair style is vastly different from MB's, as MB's bangs curl to the right and are all together, while Samus has a single bang curled to the left, and her hair color is much yellower than MB. Samus' eyes are green in Other M as well, though they were blue in previous games. As far as clothing goes, she wears her own personal outfit. Powers and abilities As an android created to replicate Mother Brain's AI, MB possesses powerful telepathic abilities. Her intense brainwaves allow her to control any life form, as demonstrated when she commanded the Special Forces to massacre all the scientists, save Madeline, who went into hiding. Also, being an android gives MB superior strength and speed to that of ordinary humans, seen once when she overpowers the guards restraining her, and again when she pushes Madeline out of the path of an incoming freeze bullet. Personality Despite being an android created for the sole purpose of controlling Metroids, she developed a maternal relationship with Madeline Bergman. Madeline began calling MB Melissa, as though she were her daughter, helping her manifest a kind and caring personality. Madeline also gave MB a hairclip, which seems to have some suppressing effect upon her abilities. However, as MB interacted with the Metroids, she began to evolve and develop emotions, similar to the growth of Mother Brain's personality. Like Mother Brain, she is shown to have a nascent sense of herself, believing that humans were foolish and should be judged for their evil actions. She also has the Pirate leader's quick temper. When blinded with anger, she lets go of all reason and focuses solely on venting said anger, seen once where she attacks the guards restraining her in a fit of rage, and again when she summons the BOTTLE SHIP's most dangerous creatures to attack the scientists, and later the Federation Marines. Madeline also said that MB's hatred was entirely focused on herself and Samus after the Queen Metroid was destroyed. Being an android, MB has a high degree of intelligence. She is noted by Madeline as a quick learner with unwavering confidence. She is also shown to be extremely cunning. A prominent example is when she re-encounters Samus and tells her everything about the Metroid project while intentionally leaving out the crucial fact that the Metroids were genetically altered to be invulnerable to the Ice Beam. As Samus posed a major threat to her schemes, MB intended to have her rush into Sector Zero unprepared and killed by the Metroids. She also possesses sadistic tendencies, as seen by the amused look on her face as she watched the bioweapons slaughter the scientists, even laughing as they were killed. Despite this obvious malevolence, it should be noted that her actions resulted mainly from the realization that she was not only betrayed by the people she worked for, but also abandoned by Madeline when she failed to help her against the attempted reprogramming of her artificial intelligence. The anger and resentment she held from that point on likely caused Mother Brain's personality to surface, causing the android to lose any sense of compassion for others. Nevertheless, part of MB's kind personality remained, as demonstrated by the fact that she spared and saved Madeline's life on a few occasions, proving that she still loved her "mother". Both Madeline and Samus questioned whether MB was truly evil or misunderstood. Given her origins, MB can be seen as somewhat of a tragic villain who turned out the way she did due to the corrupt factions of the Galactic Federation. Battle MB summons four Desbrachians to kill Samus, Madeline and the Federation Marines. Whilst defending Madeline and therefore locked in Search View, Samus repulses several of the Desbrachians in order to get a clear shot at MB. However, before she can fire, Madeline picks up the Freeze Gun MB dropped and fires it at her instead. The Federation Marines take this as their opportunity, and are given the order to fire by The Colonel, killing the frozen MB and disabling all the Desbrachians in the control room. Official data Characters log descriptions ;After RB176 Ferrocrusher attack :"Seperated from Samus after being attacked by someone." ;After reunion :"Reunited with Samus in the Bioweapon Research Center, she explained what really happened in the BOTTLE SHIP." ;After credits :"Shot to death by the Federation." ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'' Trophy description "When Samus first encountered her on the Bottle Ship, she introduced herself as Madeline. Only later did Samus discover that she was actually an android named Melissa, also called MB. As Melissa's hatred for humans grew and became more apparent, the human scientists attempted (and failed) to reprogram her." Trivia *MB is the first human android character in the Metroid series. As such, her personality is likely inspired by that of Ash in the film Alien, as both have a condescending view of humans and attempt to ensure the survival of the titular species on board the space station setting. *MB is the first main antagonist of a Metroid game who is not fought in a traditional battle. The Doomseye in Metroid Prime: Federation Force is the second, which has a mission taking place inside the ship that results in its destruction. *Interestingly, the start of MB's rampage took place mere moments after Little Birdie's murder of a scientist and subsequent escape. Whether the two incidents are somehow related is unknown. *Her character log marks her name as "Identity Unknown" with her data file as "Details Unknown" prior to the RB176 Ferrocrusher encounter. This changes to "Madeline Bergman" and "Development Director," respectively, after meeting her in the Bioweapon Research Center. Finally, it becomes "Melissa Bergman" and "BOTTLE SHIP Researcher" after her death. *It would seem MB's brainwaves as a means of controlling the Metroids were arguably far from perfect. Evidence supporting this is the scientists on board the BOTTLE SHIP creating the humanoid form of MB in order to test their theory on newborn Metroids imprinting onto an individual that resembled an authentic living organism, thus taming the specimens. **In Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid, Metroids had broken loose in Tourian and killed all the Pirate personnel (in Zero Mission) and other species (in Super Metroid), proving that Mother Brain could not control them. The ''Super Metroid'' comic depicts the baby rejecting Mother Brain as it saw Samus being its true mother. ***However, given the malevolent nature of Mother Brain, it is possible that she has deliberately left them free without any care for the pirates in Tourian. This is supported in an illustration from the introduction of Samus Returns, were the Metroids are attacking Samus alongside Mother Brain. **It is worthy to note that Other M never provided details on the degree of success of controlling Metroids after exposing them in their infancy to the humanoid MB. There is little evidence to support positive results: throughout the entirety of Samus' presence on the BOTTLE SHIP, not only was MB never shown controlling Metroids in any way, the creatures (with the exception of an Infant Metroid) were also kept in enclosed areas and within containers. It would thus imply that, at the very least, the level of confidence and control the Chozo had over their Metroid creations long ago, was never reached within the BOTTLE SHIP. *There are rooms in the Materials Storehouse and the Bioweapon Research Center that MB had accessed or tried to access in cutscenes, but in gameplay, both doors are inaccessible and lack colored lights. *MB's original form, which is a giant, featureless brain floating in a container built by Galactic Federation scientists, shares quite a few similarities with Aurora Units, although when both constructs are compared with Mother Brain, the AUs only share a similar physiology, while MB not only resembles the Pirate leader (to a closer extent, since MB is more organic), but was also programmed to think like her. *This is not the first portrayal of Mother Brain in human form. In the Captain N: The Game Master comic Nervous Meltdown, Mother Brain's subconscious manifestation of herself was also a blonde woman with blue eyes. The character, only called a "little girl", causes one character to wonder if Mother Brain is truly evil or misunderstood. She also seems to wear a one-piece outfit. *MB first appeared at the end of the E3 2009 trailer. Before the game's release, fans speculated she may have been another Samus. Yoshio Sakamoto, the game's director, addressed this by saying that she is not another Samus but is a "very, very important character." http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3174587&p=44 Her only other appearance in trailers for the game was in one of three Japanese commercials, showing the clip where she is about to be taken away for reprogramming. Her voice was heard for the first time in said commercial, saying "Actually, there was an even more dangerous plan." in Japanese. *MB's hairclip is the symbol used on the Samus Data Screen to show which file has completed the game up to the post-credits sequence. *The manner of MB's death (being frozen and then killed using projectile weapons) is also similar to the preferred method of dispatching Metroids. *Why MB threw her Freeze Gun to Madeline Bergman when attacked by the troopers is unknown. This may have been an attempt by MB to end her own life and avoid falling into corrupt Federation hands, or she may have given it to Madeline out of a desperate hope that the scientist would protect her against the Federation. *The first initials in her name were also the same as the initials for Mother Brain, acting as an early hint at her role. *Her role in Metroid: Other M is a classic example of an AI going rogue shortly after becoming self-aware, and is similar to other famous AI, such as HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but MB bears more similar characteristics to Skynet (and the titular robots in a similar vein by extension) from the Terminator franchise, particularly in the sense that she controls the creatures on board the BOTTLE SHIP to be used against humans, and that she herself is an android in a human guise. *While MB is near universally referred to as an android, it may be slightly more accurate to refer to her as a gynoid. The term android, though used to refer to a humanoid robot in general, is partially based on the ancient Greek word "andros", meaning man, while the term gynoid is derived from the term "gyne", meaning woman, and refers specifically to a robot with a female form. Gallery MB_basis.png|Possible basis in Nintendo Comics System. Other Girl.png|Melissa's original model in the E3 2009 trailer MB_is_seen.png|MB realizes she has been seen. MB_Hiding.jpg|''"Don't come near me!"'' MB_hiding_from_Samus_Cryosphere.jpg|MB hides from Samus. MB_scram.png|Samus pursues MB. MB_stops.png|MB stops to listen to Samus. MB_light.png|The RB176 Ferrocrusher shines a light on MB. MB_run.png|MB runs out of the way of a flying crate. MB_flee.png|MB is ordered by Samus to flee. Vlcsnap-99804.png Vlcsnap-100225.png Melissa_Bergman_6.png Melissa_Bergman_10.png|MB is much shorter than Samus. MB_first_form.png|MB's first form Melissa_Bergman_9.png|The Deleter approaches MB. MB_educates.png|MB demonstrates a theory to the ringleaders in a flashback. MB_emotion.png|MB begins to develop Mother Brain's personality. MB_children.png|MB with her "children" MB_grab.png|A Bottle Ship Security Guard puts his hand on MB's shoulder. MB_restrain.png|MB is restrained. MB_reach.png|MB reaches out to Madeline as she is being pulled away. MB_attack.png|MB attacks the researchers restraining her. MB_laugh.png|MB is amused by the facility's damage. MB_armed.png|MB confronts Madeline and Samus. MB_Madeline.png|''"No. You will all be judged."'' MB_battle.png|The battle MB_mourn.png|Madeline cries over MB's dead body. MB_appariation_1.png|An apparition of MB in space. MB_appariation_2.png|Another apparition PortraitMelissa.png|Portrait shown in the Characters menu. File:JP Other M Guide 154.png|''Nintendo Official Guidebook for Metroid Other M'' JP Other M Guide MB and Deleter.jpg ru:MB Category:Characters Category:Main antagonists Category:BOTTLE SHIP Category:Sector Zero Category:Biosphere Category:Main Sector Category:Cryosphere Category:Bioweapon Research Center Category:Androids Category:Deceased Category:Examine Targets Category:Galactic Federation technology Category:Artificial Intelligence Category:Telepaths Category:Mother Brain Category:Rogue Category:Scientists Category:Trophies